Spider's Game ((Book One) #Wattys2016 Winner!)

Chapter 14- The Sorceress and the Spider

The mirror reflected Silvia's cold eyes back at her. Wrapped in one of the pale girl's towels, Silvia sought humanity in her eyes. That's what I am. The strange painful thought haunted her since their escape. The children born Drambish would all be like Halis. How would they view her when they grew? Yet, not flicker of emotion ignited in her, listening to Halis impregnate Allison.

Shouldn't I feel something? I should pity her but my heart doesn't stir.

The hive's voice crooned inside her, wordless but comforting. The voices there did not want her to feel for Allison. They saw no fault in these acts.

He doesn't need to harm her. We didn't need to harm her. I...

A tear escaped Silvia's eye at the jabbing sensation in her chest. But then the thoughts faded into a fog. She could not hold them and then the hive voice came and drove away the misty remnants of doubt and sorrow.

'Hush, child. You are one of us. She is nothing. A meal, a receptacle. She matters only for the beauty she will produce. You are the living queen. She is only a fly in your web.'

Silvia spun to the bathroom's other two occupants and smiled. Halis embodied perfection, and watching him drove out doubts. Allison's white face and glassy eyes made her look like a doll. She wasn't real, never had been.

Halis stood and returned Silvia's smile. "Return home?"

"And leave her? The child she carries is precious. I'll not leave it to the fates."

"Local law inhibits us from snatching her," Halis said crossing the floor, Allison's blood smeared over his chest. "They take disappearances seriously. We'd both be detained and our grounds swept if they thought we were involved, and they would. We don't want that."

"That's a lot of research wasted if I'd said I wanted her dead."

"The top five places for an inconspicuous burial, put in order by proximity and convenience from this apartment—"

"Save your breath for clarifying your plan for the existing situation."

"Someone will find her and send her to the state hospital. Her injuries may cause a fuss but my DNA won't appear and assault is deemed a very minimal crime. I shouldn't have much trouble picking her up from there and bringing her home. No one else will come for her. Even if they suspect me of harming her, without an accusation from her they'll act on my presumed innocence."

"How are we to get this mess off planet?"

"Leave that to me."

"Once our offspring is born, we grant her a swift death." Allison deserves freedom after she's served her purpose. No more like Marim. No more fed to hive without cause.

Halis paused. "Why kill her?"

"Why do you care? You can't intend to keep her around as your little rape-doll?"

"Rape?" Halis glared at her. "That's a nasty accusation."

"What else do you call that!" Until she said the words, Allison's prone form barely registered. As she finished speaking, panic rose in her throat, choking her. Her next statement died in her chest. What am I? Death is clean, but this... I condoned this.

Halis stepped forward his brows drawn together, and the smile gone from his face. Silvia shoved him back and held her arm out to keep him at a distance.

"I call it fighting extinction. She's human- nothing."

She forced her next words to be softer. "Humanity has nothing to do with it, we didn't kill her like clean prey."

"She wanted to mate with me."

"Indeed, when you were courting her in the park. You aren't trying to tell me that threatened with death and insanity and poisoned, she remained willing?"

"Something is wrong with you, Silvia. Being around all these humans has warped your perception. They're nothing. She's nothing, just chattel."

"And me?"

"You aren't one of them. You never were. She's nothing but a lovely face to breed the continuation of our species."

"Then why keep her?"

"Get dressed. We'll discuss this at home. If it means so much to you, we can be rid of her when the child is birthed. For now, we have more to worry about."

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